


Scratch me Raw, I Hope I Bleed.

by the-trickster-and-the-optimist (wwretchedwwaltzing)



Category: The Avengers (2012), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Angst, Character Death, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Jötunn Loki, M/M, Temporary Character Death, Torture, author is a little uncomfortable with this fic but desperately wants to write it anyway
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-05
Updated: 2014-02-18
Packaged: 2017-12-22 12:37:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/913305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wwretchedwwaltzing/pseuds/the-trickster-and-the-optimist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>The hotness of the sun was the last image imprinted on Loki's mind before he fell backdropped by sharp contrast of Asgard's pale silhouette against the deepness of space. He felt the bridge crack and shatter beneath his boots as Mjolnir came down one last time, and he could feel tears burning his eyes.</i>Thor grabbed Gungnir in an attempt to stop him from falling but it was futile and he toppled too, unable to keep his balance. The world tipped sickeningly.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>  <i>In an ideal world, Odin would have raced up and grabbed one of them and hoisted them up. Loki would suffer his punishment but all would be well.</i></p>
<p>  <i>Of course as Loki knew too well there was no such thing. </i></p>
<p>His plan to destroy Jotunheim fails, and Loki falls. But with Heimdall frozen and Odin in slumber, Thor falls too, with no-one to catch them. Thanos finds himself in the possession of not one, but two broken gods. </p>
<p>The question is how long will they hold themselves together before shattering totally.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. We have Fallen, Brother.

The brightness of the sun was the last image imprinted on Loki's mind before he fell, backdropped by the sharp contrast of Asgard's pale silhouette against the deepness of space. He felt the bridge crack and shatter beneath his boots as Mjolnir came down one last time, and he could feel tears burning his eyes.

 

Thor grabbed Gungnir in an attempt to stop him from falling but it was futile; nothing could stop Loki's fall and he toppled too, unable to maintain his balance. The world tipped sickeningly.

In an ideal world, Odin would have raced up and grabbed one of them and hoisted them up. Loki would suffer his punishment but all would be well.

Of course, as Loki knew too well, there was no such thing.  
\---  
Space swirled meaninglessly around the brothers as they fell into the wormhole that had formed when the Bifrost overloaded and tore space itself in two. Loki's last view of Asgard had been on the shattered rainbow bridge, its valiant protector frozen and unable to help.

His lips quirked into a small, sad smile at that. 

Then space closed around them, and there was nothing but blackness.  
\---  
At some point Thor had managed to pull Loki close, unwilling to lose him, and Loki had let him purely because the darkness was unsettling. He had always been slightly claustrophobic and with nothing to give the illusion of emptiness, with only the darkness provided by the wormhole, he accepted what little comfort he could in familiar, warm arms wrapped around him, reminding him he was safe.

By now he was unsure of the passage of time. He wasn't even sure if time was abstract inside a wormhole, and they had actually spent a negative amount of time inside it. All he knew is that he didn't seem hungrier or thirstier than when they fell, and any estimations of the passage of time were made by his fingers pressed against Thor's wrist, measuring his heartbeat.

He guessed that it was not enough time, but altogether too much time, too.  
\---  
Suddenly, there was light.

Loki gave a hiss of pain and squeezed his eyes shut, opening them fraction by fraction until what he could see wasn't blinding. The nebulae around them were nothing like the ones in the skies around Asgard - what usually were warm oranges and bright hues of red were now dark blue.

This would have been immediately worrying if there wasn't a more pressing problem to deal with - the ground.

Despite the fact Loki loosened his muscles so that he wouldn't hurt himself through tension, it still hurt a great deal when the ground hit and he was flung aside, being ripped out of Thor's grip as they rolled though gray dust, only coming to a stop when his body was flung, rag doll style, into a stone pillar. The wind was knocked out of him and he had to sit wheezing for a few moments before glancing up and around.

The world they'd fallen onto was nothing like Loki had ever seen before. Desolate did not even seem to cover it. Spires of stone reached up to touch the heavens, some interconnected by platforms and bridges. The ground itself was dusty and felt a little like chalk, undisturbed by wind. It seemed more like a moon than a planet to him, and that was troubling.

Pushing himself up was a challenge in itself. If he had escaped with broken ribs he would be lucky, but his whole left side felt crushed. He wheezed and his shoulders shook with the effort, but at least he was alive.

"Thor!" He shouted to the elder, who was pushing himself out of a crater a few meters away. He flung Mjolnir aside and sat on the edge, coughing. Loki hobbled towards the older figure, setting himself down tenderly by the hole their impact had created.

Everything hurt, and despite the fact they had the problem of survival, the events preceding their fall still hung in the air, a figurative bilgesnipe in the room.

"Loki," Thor said, fondly.

"Thor," Loki replied, less fondly.

Thor gave a sigh and turned to look at the trickster, and Loki pointedly looked away.  
"Brother, look at me."

"I'm not your brother," Loki deflected ineffectually.

"The Midgardians have a phrase; Darcy taught me it," Thor said, seemingly out of nowhere. " 'The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.' She said that it signifies that the ties of experience are stronger than the ties of family, and I am inclined to agree with her. We share no blood, but you are my brother, because we have fought side by side as brothers for millennia."

"And you are inclined to believe a human who has not lived a fraction of what we have lived."

"Do not act so superior, Loki." The younger snorted at that, and Thor groaned, frustrated but in the understanding of Loki's derision at his hypocrisy. "They are young and their lives short, but we have a great deal to learn from them."

"More than you have to learn from me, obviously." Loki said, and Thor grabbed Loki's shoulders, even though the younger winced.

"Do not turn these events on yourself."

"Why?" Loki narrowed his eyes. "You do not think, Thor. Yet I was always there, offering you counsel and support. But why did you accept these from a mortal woman you had not even known for two days?! Why could she make you see what I have been telling you for years?"

"You are jealous." There were no negative connotations. It was a statement of fact.

"I am not jealous," He snarled back. "But I guess I know my 'place' now, just as a whore knows hers."

"Loki!" Thor snarled, yanking him back around when Loki tried to turn away and earned a pained murmur from the younger. "Stop with these self-deprecating thoughts."

"Thoughts that you put there. Remember? I nearly had us out of Jotunheim, but you told me to ‘know my place’. You've made that place quite clear to me."

"And now I am attempting to make amends! Please, let me make things better between us."

Loki stared at him for a long moment, then ripped himself out of Thor's grip and stood up. "I can see the Sickle Constellation. From the fact we can see it and its place in the sky, I think we're on a world somewhere between Svartalfheim and Muspellheim."

"Wonderful." Thor murmured, grabbing Mjolnir and standing up.

"Indeed. We're right at the roots of Yggdrasil and I haven't the magic to return you home."

"Us, home." Thor corrected, but Loki ignored it.

"So the next move for us is to find some place safe and a source of food and water."

Neither brother made it very far across the empty vista of the world, but when Loki's side grew too painful to walk, they bickered about Thor’s desire to offer Loki a hand and Loki being too stubborn and proud to accept it. But in the end the younger had to grip onto Thor's shoulder and Thor slung an arm around Loki's waist, pulling him along. Loki sulked over his bruised pride the entire way.

They found a small cave which they crawled into, barely large enough to accommodate the two of them, however it was well hidden from anything that might come along. A part of Loki hoped there was life - at least then it meant there was food and water to be had, if one looked hard enough.

He curled up in a way that alleviated most of his pain, and fell into a deep slumber.

\---  
He awoke to the sound of machines.

They hummed in a small way, so low that it was barely audible but it was there. Thor slumbered on, oblivious, but Loki's curiosity got the better of him, and he squeezed out of the cave just enough to see. A piece of the Bifrost had crashed into the planet during their sleep which had attracted a horde of creatures. They seemed both bionic and insectoid at the same time, but had a bipedal appearance, nothing like Loki had ever seen before. They chattered in a language he didn't understand before moving on.

Loki lost interest in the creatures at that point, crawling back inside the cave with a gentle huff. Thor still slept on, somehow Aesir and regal despite how bruised and battered he appeared. Loki envied him.

The appearance of sentient creatures was a comfort. It meant food and water was available somewhere. Whether that source of food was good or even edible was yet to be seen, but Loki would happily settle with mushrooms if he didn't starve. Mushrooms ; admittedly not highly appetizing, but it was something.

He figured even if there were no running sources of water, there had to be some /somewhere/. It was a fact of life - nothing could live without the necessities of food and water, or their bodies would certainly wither away into nothing. So if there was life, somewhere, there was food.

But when the problem of food and water was solved, no doubt their minds would turn to other matters - like each other. Loki knew Thor would not be satisfied with the final result of their previous conversation, and he would dredge up all the small things that Loki hated. He would do his best to make amends, but the poor thing, he would surely only make them worse. It was the bane of his lead tongue, nothing he could help. And yet, like a bilgesnipe, no matter how cautious he would be, his antlers would snag and make a mess of everything.

He packed all those petty problems into a small box at the rear of his mind before curling up in order to get another few hours restless sleep.  
\---  
When Thor awoke, things were more tense and cumbersome than ever. They spoke in brief sentences and the brevity was making Loki jittery with anger and nervousness. Their words were snippy - "Which way?" "That way." "OK." "Is that water?" "I don't know."

At least he didn't have to hear Thor wax romantic with promises and attempts to earn forgiveness. The quiet at least helped him focus on the problem at hand.

Each realm was connected to a branch of Yggrasil - Loki knew this from his earliest studies on the Nine Realms. The main branches could be accessed by channelling a large amount of energy along them, which was essentially what the Bifrost did, but some smaller branches touched the realms and meant he could travel freely between the realms secretly. It was how he smuggled Jotun warriors into Asgard before.

There was no guarantee that the branches of Yggdrasil even touched this world, and if that was the case, Loki thought, they would have to find a large source of energy and carve their way through to Yggdrasil using it. If there was even a source of energy like the Bifrost on this realm. If not, then it would be a waiting game for the both of them, constant yelling to the heavens and begging Odin to find a way to reach them.

Loki felt besmirched at the very idea. But unless they could figure out a way back themselves, they were stuck. There may or may not be another way out of their current mess alone.

To Loki's utmost relief, they found a small, damp crevice which he was able to draw water up through the ground to drink from. But when he was so busy concentrating on the task of drawing water out of the ground for Thor, he was caught unaware. He heard movement behind him a moment too late, as there was a flash of light, a burst of pain, and then being dragged into darkness, all in that order.


	2. Where are we, brother?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Screeches and buries head in hands* I'm very skittish and anxious about posting new chapters, I apologise. This one has been polished as much as I can.

Coming back was like dragging himself over glass.

First came sounds, the crunching of boots and the humming of a familiar, haunting, somewhat off-key tune. Then feeling – and oh, it almost pulled him back under, the pain in his side and his head bringing tears to his eyes. And finally came sight, bleary and too bright at first, but slowly drawing into focus, like lenses of a telescope.

They were in a canyon, gray rock being drawn high up towards the skyline. The ground was less sandy and more gravel-like here, mercifully, and it was also quiet besides the soft whistling of the wind and Thor, who was pacing, causing the gravel to crunch and scrape in a way that rubbed Loki’s headache the wrong way.

“Sit down, Thor. You are making me dizzy.”

Thor turned on his heel and instantly crouched beside Loki, his eyes scanning up and down his form to evaluate the damage. Loki scoffed and pushed him away. “I'm fine, besides feeling like you hit me with Mjolnir. Or your wit, both are blunt enough. What happened?”

Thor laughed at that. “I am glad to see your own wit is still razor sharp. We were attacked, you were caught off guard. That is unusual for you. I thought none could sneak up on you.”

“Yes, well. These are hardly usual circumstances.” Loki said brusquely, his pride a bit battered at that faux-pas. “Did you see what attacked me?” Thor frowned and sucked in his cheeks, recalling what he remembered.

“They were around the size of a large Aesir, insect like, stood upon two legs, and they looked like they were half metal.”

“That is odd.” Loki frowned, and at Thor's questioning gaze, he continued. “I saw similar creatures whilst we were taking shelter in the cave. They did not see us and they were not an immediate threat, and I was largely in pain, so I returned to sleep.” Both lapsed into silence, thoughtful over this new development.

“They are our enemies.” Thor said eventually. “They tried and almost succeeded in hurting us. I do not expect they will underestimate us a second time around.”

“Nor do I. And we grow weaker, not stronger.” Loki licked his lips worriedly, then moved on to an equally troubling but important topic. “I am beginning to think we were in the void much longer than it seemed.”

“What makes you think that?”

“The sky tells me much about where we are.” Loki glanced up. “I noted something was off about the constellations when I first arrived, and I think I know now why. I guess we were in the void not days, or even weeks, but months.”

“Months?” Thor said, aghast. “What makes you draw such a conclusion?”

“It would require weeks of explaining how star patterns are affected by our placement of Yggdrasil, but I shall try my hardest to condense it. I know that the Sickle Constellation is only visible on Muspellheim, Helheim and Svartalfheim; it is simply too far away to be seen from any other Realm. I can see Helheim near the horizon, which rules out that one. But... the Sickle is in the wrong position of the sky for us to have fallen merely days or even merely weeks. It is too close to the visible part of Helheim. From my estimations, Yule has come and passed.”

“Norns...” Thor said, his brow being drawn together as he frowned. “But how are we not dead if that is the case? If we spent months in the void, we should have died of hunger and thirst. Yet here we are; alive and well.”

“I do not know. The void is strange like that.” Loki sighed and got to his feet, feeling woozy. Yet he had felt no worse when they’d landed on the planet. Thor noticed and shook his head, grabbing Loki's shoulder to push him back down, and Loki gripped Thor from the inside of his elbow to push him back.

“Brother, sit down. You suffered a head wound.”

“Yes, I did, astute observation.” Loki muttered sarcastically. “But we aren't going to get home sitting around. Those creatures – they might have some kind of technology similar to the Bifrost or some other form of transportation across the realms.”

“Perhaps,” Thor replied, “But you are still injured, and they are hostile.”

“No more than when we first landed here,” Loki sighed. “Go on ahead and give me a moment. I’ll catch you up.”

Thor, sensing Loki’s stubbornness matched his own, sighed and turned on his heel, and began to stride along the canyon’s length. With the momentary illusion of loneliness Loki allowed his mask to fall, settling against the stone wall and rubbing his forehead. Thor was putting up a wall of strength but Loki could only pray it wasn’t an act.

They were in grave danger if Thor was half as injured as Loki felt.

As Loki straightened, something whistled and skidded into the dirt beside him. He glanced around, looking for potential enemies who could have launched the projectile, and when he’d concluded they were safe, he knelt down beside the object curiously. It was a crystal, perhaps no bigger than his thumb, shimmering in all sorts of colours that seemed like they were… trapped. It took a moment to understand where he’d seen that before, but when he did, his eyes widened.

It was literally a shard of the rainbow bridge. Picking it up, he felt the energy pulse inside, trapped within the crystal, begging to be freed.

Loki knew how, he had leeched from the Bifrost before. Hel, even Thor knew how to manipulate energy to some extent, it was how Mjolnir worked. But using the vast amount of energy trapped in even a small fragment of the Bifrost - could use the energy to teleport, or to heal his wounds fully, or to kill Thor if he so wished. But another part of him thought that the energy would be more useful in the future.

He shoved it into his boot and began to follow Thor.

“How do you know so much about the skies of the other realms?” The elder asked after a short while.

“I know much.” Loki replied simply, but Thor’s expression suggested that was not a good enough answer. “I have visited most realms more than once, and what I know of their skies comes from studying star maps. Some in the Aesir library, some the Vanir library, and some from those of the realms in question.”

“I see.” Thor replied, his brow drawn together and his lips drew into a frown. Loki sighed and drew to a halt.

“Now what bothers you?” He snarled.

“Everything, Loki!” Thor snapped, his patience running out. “Everything you did on the throne. Trying to kill me and my mortal friends, usurping my throne, destroying Jotunheim – why?”

“We have had this discussion once,” Loki crossed his arms. “What are you expecting? For me to fall at your knees, confess I was possessed by a malevolent spirit and then go into your shadow once more? I let the Jotnar into Asgard to disturb your coronation because you are not ready to be king. I attempted to destroy Jotunheim because they are a race of monsters and it would be better for the Nine Realms if they were destroyed. For once I wished to be seen as your equal. Not merely Loki, youngest not-brother of Thor, but as your truest equal!”

“You are my equal, Loki.” Thor sighed. “And you are my brother. I do not care if you were born to another-“

“Even if I were born to a Jotnar?” Loki’s eyes flashed dangerously.

“You…” Thor paused to stare at Loki, and he scoffed and turned away.

“Would you like to see, Odinson? My blue flesh, my eyes like liquid fire? Do you wish to see Loki, the runt from the world of monsters?”

“You did not destroy Jotunheim merely because they were monsters,” Thor said, ignoring the question. “You did it to separate yourself from them.”

“Fancy yourself a Seer now, do you?” Loki snorted, then turned on his heel and walked until he was only an inch from Thor’s face. “Do not attempt to justify my actions, Thor. I do not care for your prattling.”

“I expected perhaps you would feel some sorrow for the deaths you have caused.”

“And you feel sorrow for the ones you have caused?” Loki spat back, caustic.

“Yes.” Thor stated. “And that is why you will never be fit for the throne.”

When Loki looked back on the argument, he was unsure who threw the first punch. He only knew one minute he was staring down Thor, a rush of anger seething through his veins, and the next they were on the ground, wrestling messily.

Loki landed on his back, the breath almost being knocked out of him. Wrapping one leg around Thor’s waist and then laying his other one flat he was able to flip them both over, blackened fingernails digging into Thor’s neck as an ugly snarl set itself upon his features.

Thor managed to knee Loki in his left side, making his fingers loosen as pain shot up along his ribs and with that, he grabbed Loki by the lapels and flung him aside. The younger noticed that Thor seemed to have dropped Mjolnir, so at least he didn’t plan to smite him, but as he scrabbled to his feet, he noticed the Berserker rage grow in Thor’s eyes.

Norns, Loki both cursed and begged internally.

He lifted his left arm to parry a punch Thor swung at his head, then suffered a kick of his own deflected. As he regained his balance another punch rained down on his head, knocking him from his feet.

He gave a cry and rolled aside when Thor tried to strike his ribs, and his second kick against the thunder god struck. Thor howled and Loki noted the twisted, mangled mess his kick had made of Thor’s fingers on his right hand.

Striking a blow with that kind of injury legitimized the fight, and Thor grabbed hold of Loki’s throat with his uninjured hand, lifting him to his feet. Loki spluttered and kicked ineffectually, feeling his breath cut off by Thor’s oddly delicate hands. Then, Thor bent his elbow and threw his weight into smashing Loki’s torso into the canyon wall.

They stared at each other for a long moment, breaths ragged, Loki’s legs weak and injuries aggravated. Thor’s expression was a warning not to fight back, and the traitorous part of Loki urged him to kill him right now.

Thor suddenly gave a howl of pain, dropping Loki roughly. He then fell to his knees in front of him and Loki kicked at his chest in order to free himself. Not caring for Thor's fate, he got up and began to run.

Unfortunately, his relief was short lived, and something struck him hard in the back, causing him to drop to his own knees beside Mjolnir.

Like a cat held by the scruff of its neck, he was frozen.

* * *

 

The Chitauri. That was all Loki gleaned from the creatures around them.

He believed that was the name of the species, but even with his knowledge of many tongues in the Nine Realms, it was a guess at best. But when the creatures spat at him and to each other, it was a word that cropped up again and again. So he mentally labelled them thusly, at least until a better name came up.

The Chitauri had carried the two now paralyzed gods onto one of their machines, dropping their bodies like corpses on to them and tying their hands onto a handrail. Then, after conferring with each other for a few more minutes, they snapped a band around each of their wrists. It shimmered, then constricted, fitting closely to his skin. With that Loki felt his magic became constricted, like wrapping a rope around his wrist so tightly that his blood supply was cut off. The world dimmed of colour. He would have growled with frustration, if not for the paralytic holding him still.

With no connection to magic, it meant not only was he weaponless, but so was Thor. Mjolnir would lay in the dust until Thor freed himself of the cuff around his wrist. He mentally cursed at their foolishness. Anyone with half a rational mind would have saved their aggression for safety. But no, apparently they had to fight at the most inopportune moments.

Loki attempted to find a silver lining to the situation. The only one he could come up with was that he could find out for certain how technologically advanced the Chitauri were, and if they possessed inter-realm travel. It was a small, cold comfort at least.

An hour or so later they landed on some kind of platform, where a huge ship that looked leviathan was docked. The Chitauri chattered with another pair running the platform and he and Thor were moved into the bowel of the leviathan, in a cell in the payload bay. Once they were locked away safely, the paralysis suddenly dropped and they regained control over their muscles.

“That was worse than when Darcy ‘tasered’ me.” Thor grunted.

Loki decided he never, ever wanted to know what being tasered was. Or meet Darcy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh yes. The joys of wormholes. Since Thor was set some point in May, they're now about February or March the next year. Because according to the laws of physics, I can send them through a wormhole and have them appear anywhere in time I want *throws hands up* yaaaaay. I'd say that they were falling through the wormhole a good few weeks, though. 
> 
> Also posting anxiety is the worst. *clicks submit, runs away from fic and hides in a bunker*


	3. They have us trapped, Brother.

“So our magic is trapped?”

“Yes.” Loki nodded, examining Thor’s fingers carefully. The proximal phalanges in the middle and ring fingers were broken, an the intermediate phalange in his index finger. “I couldn’t fix your hand if I tried.”

Thor retracted his hand carefully, face pale.

They’d been moving for a little over an hour now. The leviathan moved in a way that would induce seasickness in even the hardiest of sailors, but it was even worse with no windows. All they could do was lay on their backs, close their eyes and hope that the sickness would pass. It wasn’t as if they had anything to throw up, at any rate.

Tensions between them had cooled slightly. Thor was still angry with him for breaking his hand and trying to run when the Chitauri caught them, but they still had no desire at this moment in time to fight. Apologizing was a whole other kettle of fish, but Loki was content with the strained peace.

To his chagrin, the rest of the cargo bay told him little about the Chitauri. There was no sign of any wood, which confirmed the theory that the land around him was relatively desolate. Much like the Jotnar, they opted to utilize whatever ores lay beneath the crust of the world; metal made up most, if not all of the internal structures. The patrols along the cargo bay were regular, perhaps once every three minutes. Such a small timeframe gave no time for an escape, at least whilst his magic was bound.

If he had his magic, he could make out what kind of metal the leviathan was made of. He speculated it was a light material, with a low density, especially as there did not seem to be much keeping it up – or perhaps it was merely a very well hidden system. As it was, he was just left with rough estimates.

Dissatisfied by his examination of the interior, he lay back on the floor beside Thor and tipped his head back, attempting to ease the dizziness the constant movement of the ship was causing. It wasn’t easy to tilt his head back, though, as there was a nub of something under the skin at the base of his skull. He couldn’t get it out, but he theorized it had something to do with their paralysis.

“I wonder where we are going?” Thor murmured, turning his head to look at Loki.

“I do not know. Do you suppose they will try to kill us?”

“Mayhaps. But I will go down fighting.” Thor said somewhat stubbornly. Loki snorted and mumbled something unintelligible.

Just like in the void, Loki couldn’t tell how much time had elapsed before they reached their destination. He caught sleep in short snatches, but when he awoke for the final time he noticed once again he couldn’t move – and this time he could feel a faint buzzing in his neck, solidifying his theory. If he weren’t a victim of the paralysis system, he’d have dissected it for his own purposes.

But once again, the cage doors opened and they were shunted into some kind of cart with an engine instead of a steed to pull it. Other boxes were piled around them, filled with ore, but Loki could see inside one of them the golden curve of a piece of the Bifrost observatory.

By now, though, he was getting irritated with the paralysis. Aside from move his eyes, the only other actions available to him were reflexes – he still managed a yelp when one of the Chitauri handled him too roughly. He’d like to be able to create some kind of show of not arriving willfully.

But as the engine started up again, his head rolled down, and his heart skipped a beat.

Around the silver cuff, his skin was beginning to turn blue slowly. It was spreading down to his fingers, and already had disappeared up underneath his wrist guard and up his arm. He could /feel/ it now he was aware of it, where the world felt much warmer to his skin.

Thor would see his jotunn form, he realised with his stomach twisting sickly.

_When I’m king, I’ll hunt the monsters down and slay them!_

_March into Jotunheim as you once did. Teach them a lesson, break their spirits!_

_You can’t kill an entire race!_

_What is this newfound love for the Frost Giants?_

_If you care so much for the Jotuns, then die with them._

_I expected perhaps you’d feel sorrow for the deaths you’ve caused._

The words span in Loki’s head, and he couldn’t even close his eyes to block them out.

By time the cart had made a few miles between huge barracks,  his whole body felt hot. He knew Thor could see, and it made him feel so vulnerable, and if he could he’d make every effort to conceal his true form away. He’d fold his hands beneath his coat and lower his head so Thor could not distinguish the difference between shadow and skin.

He did not want anyone to see him. Even he did not want to see the proof that deep inside, he was a monster at heart.

When they had finally stopped, he and Thor were again manhandled into a prison block of some sort. The cells they were in were tiny, but the gaps between them were small enough so he could reach his arm through the bar into Thor’s cell if he wished. He was stripped of everything besides the black tunic under his armour and his trousers and boots, then finally, when he was deemed harmless, the paralysis was lifted. With the freedom afforded to him, he put his back against the bars of the cell and tucked his hands and face in so Thor could not see his Jotnar form.

He still felt the shard digging into his heel, but now it was merely annoying. He couldn’t do anything with it if he couldn’t manipulate energy. He should have teleported whilst he had the chance.

“Loki.”

Thor’s voice sounded harsh, almost like he’d been crying, even though Loki knew that wasn’t the case. He remained silent and just curled himself up closer.

“Loki, please.”

“What?” He rasped in reply, ruby eyes flickering up to see Thor’s face before becoming transfixed on the runes on his hand and his black nails. And by transfixed, he was transfixed was in the same, horrifying way one became transfixed on watching someone’s inevitable death.

He felt Thor’s fingers brush his back. “Look at me, please, brother.”

“No,” he stated plainly.

Thor’s fingers dropped, and Loki both craved the contact and was glad for it to be over. He wanted Thor to say his form didn’t matter, however he also wanted him to confirm what he already thought, that he was a monster worthy of being slain. What a contrary creature I am, he thought morbidly.

Thor, ever tactless, sighed and then tried again. “Loki, you cannot hide from me forever.”

“True. And so I will just hide until this cuff on my wrist has been released.” He muttered stubbornly.

“How long will that be?” Thor said, raising an eyebrow. He then grabbed at Loki’s sleeve by the elbow and manhandled Loki’s hand into view, causing him to whirl around with fury in his eyes, glittering like blood.

“Is your curiosity for your monsterous not-brother satisfied, now?” He hissed, grabbing his arm back. Thor remained steady in his gaze, however.

“Stop it, brother. My opinion of you has not changed from knowledge of your lineage.”

“Truly?” Loki snapped. “Says the one who would happily have slain every Jotnar he got his hands on.”

“I have changed.” Thor replied. “We’ve had this conversation before, Loki, you are pulling us in circles to justify your hatred.”

Loki once again turned his back.

Thor’s mouth opened to speak again, but he was interrupted by the approach of someone to their cells. He was not much like the other Chitauri; this one held an air of self-importance. A leader of some kind? But he took a breath, unsure what to expect.

“Well, this is interesting.” He said, which caused Loki to glance up, chest swelling with curiosity. He could speak Aesir? This one only grew more and more interesting.

“Who are you?” Thor said, getting to his feet and staring down the newcomer. “You will free us.”

“I think not. Though I am known simply as the Other.” The Chitauri told them. “Your descent caused quite a bit of trouble with one of our mining operations. I sincerely hope you have an explanation.”

“None you would care for.” Loki said, getting to his feet and straightening himself. He still seemed uncomfortable with his form, but Thor knew better now than to override Loki’s silver tongue. “Do you plan to free us? We may have disturbed your mines, but you’ve injured us, paralyzed us, and dragged us through your world like cattle.”

“Not yet.” The Other replied. “Of course there are…. Administrations to deal with. Though if we choose to release you, it will be without any delay.” 

“If there is anything that will speed our release, it would be grand to know.” Loki said, his voice silky. “Any way we can make amends....”

“One of our mines collapsed, killing several of our men. We will not release you so quickly.” The Other said. He then turned and left without hearing either Loki or Thor’s protests.

“Wonderful.” Loki said.

* * *

 

The pedestal before The Other glowed brightly, and he waited for his contact to come through. His latest hopes for conquest were not very possible without his contact, because without him, they hadn’t the technology. That did not mean he particularly enjoyed their contact, nor did he particularly like the terms set out. Yet it was necessary. The Other wanted Midgard wiped clean and take the world for his own, yet did not have the technology to crush Midgard's armies. His contact wanted but one item on Midgard, The Tesseract, but did not have the manpower. It seemed like the perfect arrangement.

“You have news?” The voice echoed from the device suddenly, and the Other smiled thinly at that as a projection of a heavy-jawed man appeared upon the screen before him.

“Yes, Thanos. A pair of gods fell onto our world – an Aesir and a Jotnar runt. They have strength between them, the Aesir of the body and the Jotnar of wit, but they are broken and we were able to subdue them and bring them here.”

“Interesting.” Thanos said thoughtfully. “Are your armies prepared?”

“We were on schedule until the fallen gods collapsed one of our mines, entrapping several of my Chitauri beneath the rubble. It may take weeks to catch up on the weapons we need.” The Other reported bitterly. “But aside from that, our army grows.”

“I will brook no excuses, Other. But these gods...” Thanos again, seemed thoughtful. “Tell me about them.”

“They could work together synchronously, yet conflict is sewn into every conversation they have.” The Other replied after a moment. “My men reported they were arrested in the midst of a heated battle. Yet with the Aesir’s strength and the Jotnar’s cunning, they could be the strongest pair the Nine Realms have ever seen.”

“You think they could work in our armies?” Thanos said suddenly, the beginnings of an idea growing in his brain.

“If broken, perhaps, yes.” He nodded. “And if given reason enough to bond. Like a circus creature beaten into submission, we may make them dance to our tune.”

“See to it, then.” Thanos straightened. “The date which I will rendez-vous with you grows closer. Do not fail me.”

“Yes.” The Other grinned sickly. “I will get right to it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops. I had this written weeks ago, but I had no time to edit due to college. :'D 
> 
> Next chapter - shit goes down. Things get bad.
> 
> Note: The phalanges are the bones in the fingers. There are three - the proximal are the longest, closest to the hand, and the intermediates are the middle one. The distal, even though I don't mention them, are at the ends.
> 
> I also forgot to write in Jotunn Loki in the last chapter, which was unintentional. So I'm gonna BS the reason for the delay by simply saying the reason he didn't Jotunn instantly is because it took time for the cuff to break down Loki's illusions.


	4. We are slaves, brother

Loki almost longed for the moments when they were on the run. 

At least there he could be proactive - here, in the cell, all he could do was rest his head against the chill of the bars and wait. 

Thor was unusually quiet. Loki wasn’t sure if he liked Thor being so quiet and pensive, but he was, his light blue eyes clouded with thought and perhaps an edge of fear. No, he corrected brashly. Better he stay quiet and keep his thoughts to himself, save them both a waste of energy in the long run. 

A few hours later a Chitauri guard brought them some sort of thin broth, which despite not having much taste and being bulked up with mushrooms, both brothers inhaled. Having eaten and drank, Loki felt better, at least. His cotton mouth was gone and he could think more clearly now his stomach wasn’t clamouring to be filled. Even Thor seemed to be in better spirits now. 

“What do you suppose they will do?” Thor asked Loki after a while, and Loki was merely glad the question wasn’t about him. 

“Probably set us to work to replace the men they lost in the mines.”

In truth, Loki wasn’t far off. They were moved later in the day [or night; Loki had lost track of what time of day it was now] to another cell in the prison block, both in the same cell, which housed little more than a mattress on the floor and a sink. Ordered to rest, they obliged happily, sinking onto the bed and fell asleep. 

\--- 

They were woke to the sound of clattering and a voice which sounded as pretty as gravel.

“Get up.”

Loki shoved himself up with one arm and rubbed his eyes, looking up to the owner of the voice, seeing a Chitauri who looked like he’d seen more wars than there were enemies to fight with. He stood with a crooked back and had a body pockmarked with scars and otherwise damaged flesh. 

“It’s your lucky day.” The Chitauri continued, turning off the force field that kept the brothers in their cell. “You two are going work. Now, before we begin, I wanna make this crystal clear. You run, you die. You fight, you die. You even side-eye a workmate wrong, I’ll give you lashes. You understand me?” 

“Perfectly.” Loki said, voice rough from sleep. 

“Good.” The Chitauri curved a finger, beckoning them closer, which was met with some reluctance. “Now, hand over your armour.” 

Loki’s heart stopped, remembering the shard still settled against the curve of his ankle, but all the Chitauri wanted was the heavier pieces of armour. They kept their boots, trousers, and the cloth under tunic they wore to stop their armour chafing. The rest was whisked away to gods-know-where. 

“I hate this place.” Thor grunted, and Loki agreed with a terse nod. 

Now as declawed as they could get, Thor and Loki were herded to another part of the complex, deep underground, via a rickety lift that shuddered with each metre of descent. The journey through the shaft was relatively short, and with a blast of cold air, it opened out into a huge underground complex. 

“What are they doing there?” Thor asked, pointing to a part of the complex, and Loki leaned over for a closer look. 

“It looks like they’re building something…” Loki’s brow furrowed. He couldn’t see much, but if he could, it bore more investigation. “Can’t tell what at this distance.”

Thor grew disinterested, but Loki couldn’t help thinking it was going to be important.

From there they were let into a door in one of the walls, which opened into a communal area surrounded by mine shafts. Some Chitauri were lay around a fire catching sleep, whilst others dug away at the rock. Other Chitauri stood upon hastily constructed watchtowers, keeping a sharp eye on the communal area for trouble. 

The Chitauri that brought them there said - “You’ll be living here until you’re debts paid off. You don’t eat until you’ve filled a cart with ore - and not rock, we’ll be checking that, but good ore. We’ll be keeping an eye on you. Now go!” 

And with that, they were pushed down and left alone. 

“Well, interesting.” Loki said after a moment, eyes like fire flickering back and forth. 

“Indeed.” Thor agreed, and took up a pickaxe in his hand. 

\---   
The next few days were full of hacking away at the rock with pickaxes. Loki’s limbs grew stiff as he chipped and chipped away, and after the stiffness came a weakness that made holding the pickaxe up hard. Then numbness, where he could feel nothing had had no strength at all. He knew that he needed to sleep and eat, but neither was possible until him and Thor had filled with ore. He lost track of time. It could have been hours, days, weeks, or even months. It was impossible to tell.

Slowly, slowly, the cart filled. And when Loki placed the last piece upon the top, enough to earn a nod of approval, he could only fall to his knees and sink down onto his and Thor’s shared bedroll. Even raising to eat the grain mash that they were fed exhausted him. Thor was not much better, but he was more used to gruelling physical tasks than Loki. 

“That was hardly enough food for a cartful of ore.” Loki murmured to Thor - they were slept side by side, on their sides, facing one another. 

"I know." Thor replied, reaching out and wrapping his fingers around Loki's wrist. It was a small comfort and one Loki was happy to accept. He swallowed hard and wrapped his other arm up around his head to give himself a pillow. 

"We need to get out of here." 

"I know, but you are the clever one between us. I have no idea about what to do."

\--- 

Loki was equally uncertain. The days stretched long and hard, and between eating and cutting rock into ore, he had little time to think about the problem. He was too busy trying to mine enough ore to eat. Even worse was the treatment that befell both of them - by the end of the first week, he was covered in purple bruises from being hit, kicked and elbowed by jeering guards and gruff generals. He ached all over, was exhausted to the bone, and more than anything, he just wanted to curl up and sleep forever to avoid the harsh reality of the life around them.

Loki did learn a few words of the Chitauri language. Words like 'food', 'ore' and 'pain'. The language was harsh in his mouth, like chewing glass, and he didn't make a habit of saying anything in it. That was alright, though. Loki had nothing to say. 

His relationship with Thor was less strained, the tears only showing when they were pressed together for warmth at night. He ignored his brother's friendly, caring attempts to ensure he was alright, rebuking with bitter words which quickly melted into nothing the moment they curled up on the bedroll. It was a tight fit to begin with but when icy air blasted up through the mines, Thor often huddled close for warmth. This often led to Loki having his back pressed to Thor's chest, feeling warm air huffed against his neck and an arm wrapped around his belly, feeling safe for some inexplicable reason.

\--- 

"We're never going to finish this cart in time for food at this rate." Loki complained one day, leaning against the wall of the mine. 

This was perhaps their second or third week of gruelling work, and it was beginning to show on the both of them, not just in their exhausted features, but in their frames. The lack of protein or fat in their diets was beginning to show as muscles wasted. The change was more dramatic on Thor - he had far more to lose and Loki could see the change in his size and the definition of his arms and chest. 

"You may be right." Thor nodded, supporting himself with one arm, and that only lead Loki's heart to sink. Thor was the optimist between them. 

There was a moment of reluctance pass between them both, the reluctance of two people who know they have to go about a task, but with the knowledge the effort on it would be for naught anyway. 

There was a thing about exhausted minds that made them dangerous - the willingness to shut down inhibition and caution in favour of just getting on with a task. One of the Chitauri did not take note of the thin fracture forming. He did not realise this section of mine was unsafe until it was too late; there was suddenly a loud crack and a roar like thunder, and a tremulous shudder which knocked both gods off of their feet - and the rockfall made a wall between them. Loki thought he heard Thor call his name, but he couldn't be sure.

Pure chaos erupted in the bowels of the earth. Loki coughed as dust filled his lungs, darkness swallowing him and the Chitauri trapped on the other side of the collapse. Once the dust had settled, Loki got painfully to his feet. He could hear yelling, but it sounded distant. His head felt woozy.

Loki did not often ignore opportunity, and here was one shining right in his face. He was far smaller than the Chitauri miners. If he could slip out, in the commotion, he might be able to escape. 

He didn't flock to the collapse like the other Chitauri, who were trying to dig those who had been stuck in the collapse. He turned on his heel and looked for an exit. 

\--

Finally after a long, twisting journey and squeezing through several wooden blockades, he stood alone in the central communal area. There wasn't even a guard present - and Loki felt hope rise in his chest as he scrambled for the entrance. The gate didn't open.

He gave a frustrated growl and headed back down, eventually finding a discarded pickaxe that he used to smash the lock open. No-one heard - the cries and yells and banging from behind him, in the bowels of the mine, kept him hidden.

He ran. Across the cavern, with quick, flighty footsteps, towards the huge building he and Thor had spotted on the way down here. Slipping inside, he checked behind him to see if he'd been spotted, found he hadn't, and shut it, letting out a small breath. Safe for now, at least, but no doubt someone would find the broken lock.

The room before him was quite large. It was full of high-tech equipment, trailing wires and tangled electronics spilling out of control panels like the intestines of some huge creature. All this equipment, and all the control panels, had a focal point - a circular platform with a button on a pedestal before it. On the pedestal was etched a word, but Loki couldn't translate it. 

On the floor beside it, though, was a blueprint, spread out and pinned down with chunks of metal. Loki recognised the drawing instantly - it was Yggdrasil.

Falling to his knees, he brushed wires and screws aside, looking at the map. He quickly found two places were circled, one in blue, on in red - the blue one wasn't part of Yggdrasil, but separate, quite low down - between Svartalfheim and Muspellheim. The exact position Loki had guessed that the Chitauri world was. The other circle was on the centre, just below Asgard. 

Midgard.

Loki tilted his head up, and pushed himself to his feet again, returning to the pedestal. The marking on it matched the label on Midgard's circle. Was this a teleportation pad? He hoped so. Midgard wasn't Asgard, but at least it was better than here. There were paths from Midgard into Asgard. 

The machine looked incomplete, but Loki hoped it may have enough functionality to work. So he smoothed his thumb over the button, stepped onto the platform, and pressed it, eager to be on another world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all have been oh-so-patient, and I am really thankful for that! 
> 
> I may or may not have another chapter to post later, but I'm travelling south tonight, so it may be tomorrow before I post it. Either way, more to come, and not necessarily good ;D


	5. What have you done, brother?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Graphic depictions of torturous punishment

It whirred and did nothing. 

Loki panicked, stabbing the button again, but nothing happened. He twisted his head, hearing commotion behind him, and realising this was an empty pursuit, abandoned the control panel.

So he was escaping the hard way, then. 

He bolted to the opposite end of the room, twisting the door open. It opened to the outside - confusing to begin with, but then he realised the entire mine was built into a cliff, and the mouth below him opened out into another outside area. He stepped out onto a platform attached to the side of the cliff and began to run, even his flighty, light footsteps causing the walkway to crash. He sighed, stopped, and walked quietly, heart in his mouth.

At the bottom of the walkway, he landed lightly in the dirt. There didn't seem to be any Chitauri around but Loki didn't let himself become complacent, setting off at a slow jog towards the fence outlining the Chitauri complex. He was so close to freedom he could taste it, buzzing like electricity under his skin. Climbing the fence was easy. He ignored the slicing barbs on the top, dropped down over the other side, and bit back a smirk. 

He couldn't get complacent. 

\--- 

As Loki leapt over a narrow canyon about a mile away, there was an angry whirr in the air, which sounded like a foghorn, coming from the complex. It was almost certainly connected to his escape, he realised, and he began to scramble away. The chase was on. Loki was determined not to be caught.

Long, narrow pathways criss crossed the landscape, trodden into the dirt by hundreds of footsteps. The place had an air of destruction about it, like a huge fire ravaged the place and turned it desolate. Ash blew in a breeze that shouldn't have been. The only light came from the stars above, casting cold, empty shadows. The only sounds were those of Loki's breath and his feet crunching into the dust.

Hours passed. 

The sound of something echoing off of the wall of one of the empty gullies gave Loki pause. He held his breath, casting his head this way and that. Nothing but the wind. Then it came again, a sound half way between a shriek and a howl, in the distance but quickly growing closer. Something pursuing him. 

He turned on his heel and he ran. He ran as fast as his legs would carry him, until his breath felt like someone was dragging thorned rose stems down his throat and his lungs burned with the effort of it. He ran and ran and ran, until he couldn't any more.

\--

The barking drew closer as Loki lost speed, and he realised with slow resignation as he pulled himself along that he was going to get caught. He'd fallen thrice now, his knee was in tatters and stinging from the dust, and his ankle disliked the idea of taking any more weight right now than was wholly necessary. 

Eventually, he just stopped, his back to his pursuers, awaiting the sure bite of something. A hungry creature's teeth, a whip, handcuffs, anything to end this abysmal chase. He heard behind him the clatter of claws and a deep growl, and braced.

The beast hit his back hard, and Loki fell, yelping in pain. He landed heavily, painfully, wind knocked from him as the beast sunk his teeth into the meat of Loki's shoulder, dragging him back. Loki howled with pain and reached over his other shoulder, hand hooked into a claw, digging at the creature's face in an attempt to hit its eye and encourage it to let go. 

He couldn't reach far enough, and by time the Chitauri hunting party caught up, Loki was weakened and in too much pain to even think of fighting more. The arm attached to the shoulder the beast had bitten had gone numb, warm blood sliding down the limb and dropping off of his fingertips to land in the dust, strikingly dark blood against pale dust. He sunk down in defeat.

Once the beast was pulled off of him and praised, Loki was yanked to his feet, handcuffed, and dragged into the ship that had landed not far away.

\--- 

"You are a fool, Jotunn." The man before him growled. Loki could do nothing but stare angrily at the one who had captured him from his escape. "Be glad it was I who caught you and not the Other. You wouldn't have made it out alive if that was the case."

"Good." Loki spat blood onto the floor. "It's better than working in his mines." 

The man rose his eyebrow. "You have a debt to pay, frost giant."

Loki rubbed his bloodied lip with the back of his hand, eyes dark. "I will not be put to work in a mine for my freedom, and certainly not with how much they feed us in return."

"The Chitauri don't complain."

"Frankly, I don't think using the Chitauri as a baseline is a prudent idea no matter what you're measuring." 

The man stared at him in an amused way that made Loki feel like he was being vivisected, before extending a huge hand out towards him. "Thanos."

"Loki," the god replied, not moving to shake the other's hand on the account it looked like his hands would be swallowed by Thanos'. 

"You seem like the sorcerer type to me," Thanos said, leaning back. "Am I right?"

"A seiðrmaðr, yes." Loki confirmed tentatively, feeling like Thanos was about to offer him something. Or perhaps he was just aware pain would soon follow, and so adding to pain now would do little to help.

"Seiðrmaðr. I like the sound of that." Thanos folded his fingers together, rested his elbows on his knees, and rested his chin on his hands. "I think the Other may have been wrong about you."

"Wrong about what?" Loki ventured cautiously.

The smirk Thanos gave chilled him to the bone.

\--- 

The chilling feeling did not dissipate as the Chitauri men and Thanos dragged him back into the cavern outside the mine - in fact, it grew worse. His guts felt like they were being twisted by nerves, his whole body on fire and muscles screaming at him to run. He remembered the General's threats. If he ran, he'd die. He wasn't afraid of death, but he knew almost certain agony awaited him before death closed in.

The central bay was empty besides The Other and Thor, who was tied against a steel pillar embedded in the earth. The brothers passed a glance between one another - Loki's of guilt and fear, and Thor's of forgiveness and reassurance. Then it was broken, and Loki was tossed to the floor by Thanos, giving a yelp as his already battered, abused body hit the stone floor, reopening the wound on his shoulder.

"Did you heed nothing of which we warned you, jotunn? Did you learn nothing from us?"

"I learned plenty. I didn't like the lessons." Loki replied. 

He was wrenched to his feet by his neck until he was facing The Other, not allowing his pain or fear to show on his face, though surely the stench of it rolled off of him. "This is no time for sass. I should slay you on the spot."

"Then do it." Loki said.

"Loki, no!" Thor yelled, and with the sound of flesh hitting flesh, Thor fell silent.

"No. Not this time, at least." The Other replied, dropping Loki to his knees. "But you will pay, and it will serve as a warning to the other prisoner what failure to comply will mean. Guards!"

Two Chitauri scuttled forwards, undoing the cuffs holding Loki's hands behind his back. But these were quickly replaced by two other cuffs with chains on, and when the chains were tugged, Loki's arms were forced into an outstretched position, opening his back to the world. Another Chitauri tugged at his undertunic, ripping the fabric away so his skin was bare.

Loki knew what was about to happen and he tugged on the chains, but it was as if he were glued to the floor - his muscles would not comply with the instruction to get up. He looked up to Thor, a pleading expression on his face. His expression said- get me out of this. Don't let them crack a whip against my skin. Help me.

Then, pain, like a hot brand pressed against his skin broke the expression. He howled in pain and jerked, chains rattling, body straining and mouth falling open. It was hot and cold at the same time and oh-so-painful. The hound's teeth seemed like nothing compared to this. It was like being split open. 

"Another." 

Loki's cry came again, less so, more of a grunt than a yelp, but he still jerked. He heard someone yell his name but it could have been anyone. Then another, lower on his back, causing it to arch away and his head to be thrown back. And another, and another, endlessly. He lost count around twenty. He lost conciousness at twenty five. 

Then, a shock, and he was jerked back into the world of pain roughly. "Don't you dare sleep through your punishment, jotunn. We're not done with you yet."

Salt stung his eyes, but he refused to beg for them to stop. 

"Enough, please, he gets it, I get it!" Thor's voice cut through the buzzing in Loki's ears, and he clung to it, instead of the pain like fire along his back, instead of the wetness on his face, instead of the bite of metal cuffs on his wrists. Thor's voice was good. Thor's voice didn't hurt. 

"Did I ask you, Aesir?" The Other growled, stepping away from behind Loki to approach his brother. Loki could see the whip in his hand - a vicious thing, dripping with red blood. Loki's blood. He thought he was going to be sick. 

"Please." Thor said, and for a moment, the tension was so palpable, he felt like he was choking on it.

"Fine. Take him back to the mine." The Other said, and the moment the cuffs and the tension they offered left, Loki pitched forwards, landing with a pained gasp and a sob. Warm, soft hands touched his arm where there was no cuts, but Loki flinched from it. 

"Brother, t'is only I." Thor hushed. Loki could only moan in pain in reply. "I cannot carry you like this. Do you think you could hold on if I carried you on my back?"

"I may." Loki bit out eventually. 

Getting Loki onto Thor's back proved to be a painful, exhausting experience, but eventually they managed it. "Don't let go, brother." Thor warned, leaning forwards to try and support as much of Loki's weight as he could. "I couldn't bear to drop you on your back right now."

Loki merely nodded weakly, before he was carried into the mine. Some of the Chitauri smelt the rich, coppery scent of blood and came to investigate, but Thor gave them such a dark look that they shrunk away, fearing the consequences of meddling. Then he lowered Loki down carefully onto the bedroll, belly-down, listening to his brother give a small, breathy whimper, and stroked his cheek.

"I'm here, brother, just sleep," Thor murmured, laying out beside him. "It's all right."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in two days, you shriek! Two! My valentines gift to you all. This is my way of romancing my readers. Not sure when the next chapter will be out, but I can tell you it will be Thor centric. Fluff, angst and bamf!Thor awaits!


	6. Hold still, brother

When they finally let Loki go, Thor was so full of relief he could have choked on it.

Oh, he thought. What have you done, Loki?

His brother – his little brother, whom he’d sworn to protect no matter what – bleeding out in the dirt, delirious from pain. He couldn’t help but be full of frustration for him. On the one hand, he could hardly blame Loki for taking whatever opportunity he got to escape. On the other, he had been so wretchedly foolish. They were weak – Thor didn’t like to admit it, but they were – and the Chitauri so terribly strong.

The blue skin on Loki’s back was torn to pieces. The wounds criss-crossing it were like terrible claw marks, and Thor thought the wounds on his shoulders actually were claw marks. The elder was desperate. He had no idea how to treat the wounds besides taking off his shirt and using it to staunch the bleeding and ensure it was clean. Loki moaned and writhed with pain the entire time, but when the rivulets of blood cascading down his sides finally stopped and dried into scabs, relief washed through Thor. He wouldn’t die of blood loss, at least.

Then he used some of their daily quota of water to wash the wounds and his body. Once the dried blood was off, the full extent of the damage could be seen more clearly and it was obvious that it looked much worse than it actually was. Not that it was a particularly nice sight to begin with – the scars would be nasty.

When, finally, Loki dropped to sleep despite his pain [or perhaps because of it], Thor lay down beside him, on the ground, watching the gentle rise and fall of his shoulders and back as sleep washed through him.

\--

Morning brought an even worse contender to deal with. Infection.

The wounds, which had looked nasty but clean the previous night, now oozed a yellowish colour and the skin around it was inflamed a hot-looking red colour. Fever rolled through his brother’s body, causing him to shake and sweat to run down his brow and back. Thor had rarely seen men in the grips of an infected wound, but it was not a sight easily forgotten.

Once again, Thor struggled to remain calm, trying his best to remember how to deal with this. It was clearly no Aesir infection; Loki had a tough constitution and despite heat flashes in summer [now with a fairly obvious cause], he did not often get sick and never with infected battle wounds – in fact, such a thing amongst the Aesir was rare. Loki had a post-battle ritual which he carried out to prevent such a thing, just-in-case he ran into an infection that Aesir bodies were unused to, and Thor tried hard to remember what it was.

Alcohol. Something about alcohol. Then, with clarity born of fear, he remembered.

 

_“What are you doing, brother?” Thor had grinned as he pushed his way into Loki’s tent. “Come join the merriment with us!”_

_“Not yet.” Loki had replied with a small head shake. “Later, perhaps.”_

_“But why?” Thor had asked, dumping himself down in the seat beside Loki on the ground, earning himself an exasperated glare._

_Loki’s expression to his question indicated confusion. “Aren’t you worried these Marauding beasts carry something on their claws and swords to kill us slowly? Poisons, infections?”_

_Thor had shaken his head to the question. “If we do, Eir will deal with it.”_

_Loki’s expression was fond but increasingly more exasperated, and he took a bottle from the side with a pungent smell which Thor had wrinkled his nose to. Catching his expression, Loki chuckled. “It’s concentrated alcohol. It stings, but it ensures if I do run into an alien infection, the infection won’t get into my body.”_

_“Why are you so worried about alien infections?”_

_“I suppose we never know if we’re going to run into something we’re unfamiliar with, and it never hurts to be prepared; especially if we get stuck on a battlefield and Eir isn’t there to help. And if I can prevent her workload growing any larger than necessary, all the better.” Loki shrugged, then explained as he poured the alcohol onto a clean cloth and dabbed a wound on his upper arm. “But yes; alcohol in any form will do the trick. If a wound does get infected, you must treat it as quickly as possible. An infected wound is dangerous. But it won’t stay in the wound – it’s likely it will get into the blood. And then you’ll get septicaemia, and then you’ll die.”_

He looked upon Loki’s prone form and fear gripped his heart. He needed to get something to clean Loki’s wound with and fast, before the infection got into his brother’s blood and killed him.

He kissed his brother’s forehead lightly. “I will be back soon. Don’t worry. I’m going to make you better. I’m going to fix this.”

Loki’s smile in reply was a surprise and also a blessing. “Don’t be too long.”

Thor stroked his dark hair before standing up. “I won’t.”

He picked up his pickaxe – it was nice to have something to grip – and walked determinedly up to the gate at the entrance of the mine, before slamming the pickaxe against the metal so it rang out. “Get me the General!”

When the Chitauri around him dignified him with no answer, he slammed the pickaxe against the bars so it shuddered and shrieked. “I said; get me the General!”

Thor was unaware of Loki’s smile behind him.

The elder was at this for at least twenty minutes before his rattling and causing a fuss paid off, and the pockmarked General who had liberated them both of their armour ambled down with a furious expression on his insectoid face. Thor felt a rush of triumph.

“Do you want to suffer the same treatment as the jotunn, or are you going to quiet down?”

“Get me a bottle of alcohol.” Thor replied. “And I’ll quieten down.”

The general looked surprised at Thor’s gall. “Excuse me?”

“My brother’s wounds are infected,” Thor growled, “Get me a bottle of alcohol to treat it.”

The General huffed and turned on his heel, walking off. Thor slammed the pickaxe’s edge against the bars, refusing to shut up.

He suffered no less than twenty blows by angered guards before he was finally rewarded for his efforts. The man who brought the alcohol Thor recognised as being part of the party who had brought Loki back from his escape, and he was instantly wary of him by this fact. But none-the-less, through the bars, he passed a small bluish bottle full of a clear liquid, with the familiar alcoholic smell hitting his nose when he uncorked it, and a cloth.

“Wait – who do I thank for this?”

The man paused in his exit, turning to speak with Thor once again. “Thanos. And – tell your brother that in return for this, I would like to speak with him when he is well.”

Thor nodded, willing to accept any terms if it meant Loki would be well again.

Then he was gone, and Thor felt giddy relief rush through him as he ran back to where Loki was lain. When he cracked open one ruby-red eye, he gave a slight laugh. “You brilliant oaf. You actually achieved something.”

“And you say being loud and obnoxious never got anyone anywhere.” He uncorked the bottle with one hand and then poured some of the clear liquid onto the cloth, then sat on his knees beside him. “This is going to hurt.”

“Tell me something I don’t know. Get on with it.”

Loki squirmed and gave a short, sharp gasp of pain as the cloth touched his wounds. Thor tried to be quick, wiping away the pus and blood and pouring more alcohol on the cloth ever so often, but there was only so fast he could go whilst being thorough. There was no obvious change to the wound once he was done besides being cleaner, and Loki had bitten his lip to bleeding by time he was done. He only hoped it would heal the wound.

After that, Thor and Loki still needed to eat, so Thor left Loki slumbering and went to work, returning ever so often to check his brother was still breathing.

By the end of the day, Thor had only filled their quota by taking a leaf out of Loki’s book – he cheated. He’d steal pieces of ore from other Chitauri. Anything to ensure he could give Loki a meal later despite his wounds. And he succeeded – the cart was full, and the Chitauri grudgingly gave him two bowls of thin broth in return for his work.

And to his relief, it seemed the treatment had worked – the wound was a lot less inflamed, and Loki’s fever had cooled considerably, and it clearly hurt less as he had managed to roll over and sit up.

“You look well.”

"I feel like Hel warmed up." He grunted. But then a small, genuine smile crossed his lips as he accepted the broth. "Thank you. "

"You don't need to thank me." 

After a moment and a few mouthfuls of broth, Loki spoke again. "I abandoned you. Aren't you even a little upset?" 

"I have no doubts you would have returned with help of you were successful. No. I am not mad."

Loki's smile was thin and watery. 

"The man who gave me the bottle of alcohol for your wounds. He wanted to speak with you once you were well," Thor said as he ate his meal quickly. 

"Oh?" Loki said. 

"Yes. He called himself Thanos."

Loki's eyes narrowed, but he said nothing.

Once the broth was finished, Loki shuffled over to where Thor was sat and leaned against his arm. Thor was pleasantly surprised – however, opening his mouth to speak was met with a hush.

“I’m just tired. Don’t talk.”

One of Loki’s arms wrapped around Thor’s waist and he rested his head in the hollow between his shoulder and chest. It would be the perfect place for Thor to wrap his arm around Loki’s waist and pull him close, but he daren’t risk hurting his little brother, so he kept it to himself. His other hand lifted to stroke Loki’s dark hair back from his face.   
After perhaps twenty minutes of this, Thor felt himself being pushed back against the bedroll, Loki arranging himself so he was tucked against Thor’s side, using him as a pillow. He remembered how Loki would do this as a child, when he was afraid. Such a memory made Thor unfathomably angry at the Chitauri. Loki was tough, but perhaps he was more frightened of the Chitauri and their punishments than he let on.

Petting his brother’s hair, Thor hardened his heart. He wouldn’t let them hurt Loki. Not again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've finished beating up Loki for now. And this chapter didn't come out at all like I expected. Oops.
> 
> ~~i also feel like I'm trying to make up for missed time, but these chapters won't stop flowing. help~~

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic like this so please go easy on me ;; And don't hate me for the inevitable suffering I'm gonna put Loki and Thor through. 
> 
> I have to thank my friends who RPed this prompt with me, and whilst this is nothing like either, they have supplied many ideas. 
> 
> You don't understand how much comments mean to me. I'm very anxious about my work and so any comments, kudos and reblogs on my Tumblr are so so so appreciated. 
> 
> Let me know if words string together or the first letters of words are doubled. It's the spellchecker on my writing program, I _swear_ I felt like smashing something.
> 
> If you get this wild need to share my fic with anyone in the Tumblr community, you can find my blog post [here](http://thetricksterandtheoptimist.tumblr.com/post/57425197345) . 
> 
> Also I gotta stop spending like a month editing my own work.
> 
> EDIT: I'm touched by the feedback that you've all given me. The Real Life monster has struck as I busy myself with preparing to enrol in college (UK college, I should clarify) and it is now my intention to rewrite this chapter as my plot accidentally evolved. Oops. (Also: grammar. How do? I'm never gonna pass English at this rate.)


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